


Everyday Simplicities

by ichigoangel



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, It's all fluff, M/M, also they got a dog, that's all it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-09
Updated: 2013-09-09
Packaged: 2017-12-26 03:59:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/961317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ichigoangel/pseuds/ichigoangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern!Au in which Eren moves into Levi's apartment. Just a little collection of random happenings during their life together. Established relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everyday Simplicities

**Author's Note:**

> The title doesn't fit at all so just. Ignore that. I wanted it as the title, okay. Yes.
> 
> On another note, woah, I wrote something that's not all pain and suffering. Woah. I was in need of some fluff, aha.

Eren Yeager laughed the first time he saw his recently attained boyfriend, Levi, in a dark green cooking apron that was slightly too large for him. It had his name inscribed in cursive white lettering across the front, and Eren found the sight too amusing to keep in his laughter.

“I thought you said you never cook?” He said, wrapping his arms around Levi’s waist from behind and resting his chin lightly on Levi’s sturdy shoulder. Underneath the apron, Levi had on a plain black t-shirt and pair of light-wash jeans. Eren himself had on a sky blue t-shirt and pair of black jeans. 

“You’re right, I don’t, but I’m always prepared for if I do. Just like now. And I’ll be damned if I get my clothes dirty. Also, get off of me; you’re supposed to be helping cook this shit.” 

Levi was obsessed with cleanliness, a personality trait that Eren found difficult to live with every day. Eren himself was rather messy and disregarded the “importance of maintaining a spotless living area”, which Levi was often irritated by. In the end, Eren couldn’t say he was surprised in the slightest that Levi had a cooking apron lying around for the three times a year that he might actually need it. Although, they had both said they’d make more of an effort to learn to cook, now that they lived together.

Speaking of living together, Eren had moved into Levi’s small one-bedroom apartment approximately two weeks ago. At twenty-two years old, Eren was a senior in college, two months away from graduating. As a college student, his furniture was barely even worth mentioning and so he contributed very few furnishings to the modernized apartment. Black, white, and grey were the most common colors that could be seen throughout the minimally decorated space. Despite the relatively formal air of the apartment, it was still an inviting place to come home to, Eren thought. 

Levi had graduated from college five years ago and currently held a decent standing in the corporate building of a company, which he’d gotten a job in right out of college. He was twenty-seven years old, resulting in a five year age difference between the two. While Levi was five years older, he was seven inches shorter than his older boyfriend, who had grown up to be about 5’10”. Eren got plenty of satisfaction from reminding Levi about their height difference, which was guaranteed to get a rise out of Levi every single time. 

The most complicated meal that Eren had ever made was spaghetti, and it hadn’t even turned out decent. Actually, he’d almost burned down the apartment that he had shared with his adoptive sister, Mikasa, when he made the attempt. He had been banned from operating the kitchen machinery from that point on, a ban that he hadn’t minded in the slightest. Levi wasn’t much better off in the realm of cooking; he was dependent on the convenience of restaurants, fast food joints, and meals that could be cooked by sitting in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Cooking promised to be an entertaining experience for the two of them to undergo together.

“What do you want me to do?” Eren asked; he kissed the top of Levi’s silky black hair before reluctantly pulling his arms away from his boyfriend’s slender waist. 

“You could start by washing your hands, dumbass. I don’t want your grubby fingers all over what’s supposed to go into my mouth later.” Levi replied as he grabbed a knife from the knife rack that stood up against the wall on top of the light grey counter. They had decided to try and make fajitas, because it seemed easy enough for them to handle and had sounded pretty good. Levi put himself in charge of cutting up the chicken breasts they’d bought at the grocery store earlier in the evening; that part, at least, was easy to accomplish without any difficulties. 

Eren washed his hand as Levi cut the chicken with long, steady strokes of the knife that he held confidently between his fingers. Once Eren announced that his hands were clean (according to Levi’s standards and not his own), Levi told him to cut up the assortment of peppers that sat on the other end of the counter. Eren grabbed the peppers along with a plastic cutting board before setting the items down on the counter and taking a position right by Levi’s side, standing just far enough away for both of them to easily carry out their respective tasks. 

“Fuck.” Eren bit his lip as blood welled up along a thin red line that had appeared on the base of his thumb. He lifted his hand to his mouth and sucked the small droplets of blood from it so that they didn’t get all over the food. Levi looked up from his work immediately and cast a concerned glance onto Eren. 

“Do you not cut things ever, or?” Levi asked, rolling his eyes as Eren looked at him, hand still connected to his mouth. Once Eren’s lips parted from his wounded thumb, he replied to Levi.

“Hey now, it’s not my fault that the knife is so sharp.”

“Oi, be more careful, idiot.” Levi said as he set his own knife down gently on the counter. He disappeared into the bathroom and he returned with a small band-aid clutched in his right hand. Once he was back in close proximity with Eren, he peeled the paper wrapping off of the bandage and grabbed Eren’s hand. He placed the band-aid over the small cut and secured it in place. Once that was done, he lifted the hand to his lips and kissed the band-aid covered wound; Eren’s lips upturned into a smile as he did so.

After he let go of Eren’s hand, he simply said, “Be more careful this time.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Eren said, returning to the task of cutting up the colorful peppers that lay waiting for him. 

Eren’s clumsiness with his knife wasn’t the only mishap that happened in the kitchen that night; despite their best efforts to make a decent meal for the two of them, they failed. Miserably. Their movements in the kitchen were clumsy and it was painfully obvious that neither of them were confident in their abilities to work a stove.

Eren and Levi had gotten distracted from watching over the food by engaging in a mixture between casual conversation and making out; they were snapped out of their reverie by the high-pitched screech of the fire alarm. Alarmed, they both turned their gaze to the stove to find a thick layer of smoke spreading through the kitchen.

“God fucking dammit.” Levi said as he approached the stove in order to turn off the burners. Eren climbed up on a stool and disabled the fire alarm that was placed on the kitchen ceiling. Their food was beyond help; they both doubted that it was even safe to consume. They mutually agreed that it was best to just dispose of it, despite the work they’d put into it.

“Pizza Hut or Dominoe’s?” Levi asked in a voice that held irritated resignation over the wasted food. 

“Pizza Hut.” Eren replied, dropping the last of the charred remains of what was going to be fajita stuffing into the silver garbage can that sat beside the stove.

Levi called and placed their order, and they both leaned against the counter and crossed their arms as they waited for the telltale knock of the pizza delivery guy. 

“I’m starving.” Eren groaned after about fifteen minutes of impatient waiting. His stomach growled a second later as if on cue. 

“I am too. This was a really shitty idea.” Levi replied, referring to their failed attempt at cooking together.

“It really was.”

“We’re ordering out from now on.”

“That’s a much better idea.”

Ten minutes later, the pizza guy happily accepted his payment in exchange for the large pizza they ordered; they managed to eat the whole thing before the night was over. They spent the evening watching sitcom reruns whilst lying cuddled together on the couch and casually eating their way through the pizza that occupied the grease-stained cardboard box. The topic of how horridly difficult cooking was came up more than once, and they decided that learning to cook wasn’t worth their time. It had only taken them one attempt to give up, and there was definitely something to be said for that. They fell asleep on the couch, grateful that pizza places existed to help keep them from starving as a result of their cooking incompetency. 

-x-

There was a tiny little park that was about a block away from Levi’s apartment, and the couple frequently visited it on weekends when they couldn’t think of anything better to do. There was a swinging bench along with a couple of worn-down wooden benches spread throughout the patch of greenery. A line of trees led up to one short nature trail that ran along the back of the park; it only took five minutes to walk through in its entirety. Even so, it was a relatively pretty and serene trail to travel every now and then.

Few people visited that park, making it an ideal place to get some peace and quiet in a setting that wasn’t the apartment. Even in the winter, Eren and Levi visited often and traveled slowly through the small park, hands intertwined.

One Saturday during the transition between fall and winter, they were the only visitors in the park other than one elderly woman who had brought a bouncy little girl who was presumably her granddaughter. Levi seemed to get cold easier than most people and had already brought out his winter attire; he wore a black trench coat over his clothing as they spent the day outside. Eren himself hadn’t even brought out a light jacket yet; he was content and perfectly warm in a light brown sweatshirt.  
They engaged in lighthearted conversation based on trivial matters as their fingers locked together in one swift, natural motion. 

“This isn’t even the coldest fall we’ve had, you know. I don’t know how you can seriously be walking around in a winter jacket already; it’s only snowed a couple of times. There’s still about three weeks before it’s even considered winter, you know.” 

“Shut up. I was cold.” 

“That’s because you’re cold-hearted.” 

“Watch it, or I’m kicking you out.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Like hell I wouldn’t.”

“I don’t believe you.” 

“You should.”

Their casual bickering was interrupted by the little girl, who blocked their path forward along the grass. She looked to be about seven or eight, and had blonde hair that reached her shoulders. She was wearing a bright pink jacket along with pale blue sweatpants whose ends were shoved into white winter boots. She looked up at Eren and Levi and a cheery grin spread over her face.

“Hi!” She exclaimed in the singsong voice that little girls often possessed. 

“Hi!” Eren mirrored, grinning back at the young girl. Levi looked on with disinterest, hand still connected to Eren’s. 

“Why are you holding hands?” She asked with the bluntness that was common among children; children operated much more simply than adults did, that was for sure. 

“Because we both love each other very much!” Eren replied, and the little girl’s grin widened. 

“But you’re both boys!”

“Yeah, but we still love each other.” Levi chimed in; he didn’t smile like the other two did, but he regarded the girl with a gentleness that many wouldn’t have expected from Levi. 

“Okay! Well, if you love each other a lot, you should kiss! Because my mommy and daddy kiss a lot and say they love each other a lot.” 

Eren laughed and gently brushed his fingers along Levi’s jaw as a signal for him to turn his head and face him. They leaned in simultaneously and brushed their lips against each other’s. Eren’s eyes fluttered shut automatically and they didn’t open again until Levi pulled away; the kiss was shorter than most of theirs due to the presence of the little girl, who had begun to clap happily.

“I like you two! Kiss lots and lots, okay?” The little girl’s grandma had noticed her absence and approached the group of three in the slow gait of a human who was slowing way down in life. 

“I’m very sorry, you two. My granddaughter has made a hobby of walking up to couples and seeing if they’ll kiss for her. I apologize for interrupting your time.”

“It’s no problem.” Levi replied for the both of them.

“Grandma, they kissed! They kissed!” The girl exclaimed, grabbing her grandma’s hand in preparation to leave. 

“I know they did, honey.” The elderly woman sighed and smiled gently at Eren and Levi. After a moment, she added, “You two young men have a nice day. Thanks for humoring my little girl here.” 

“It’s nothing! She’s pretty cute.” Eren said.

“That she is. She’s quite the charmer, really.” The elderly woman turned her attention over to her granddaughter. “Are you ready to go, sweetie?”

“Yeah!” The little girl chimed, and she waved enthusiastically at Eren and Levi as she walked away hand in hand with her grandma. 

Once the pair was out of earshot, Levi spoke. 

“I honestly think that’s the first time an old person hasn’t looked at us disdainfully, knowing we’re a couple.” 

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it is.” 

“Her granddaughter was certainly amusing enough.”

“I didn’t mind fulfilling her request.” Eren replied, leaning his head down so that he could kiss Levi again; this time for much longer now that they were alone in the park. Levi stood on his toes slightly so that Eren had less distance to make up for and slid his arms around Eren’s waist. Eren’s arms rested on Levi’s back as their lips met. Levi’s lips had grown cold from being outside for an extended period of time, and Eren took the liberty of warming them back up. 

Once the kiss met its end, they decided to head back to the apartment and warm up from their exposure to the borderline-winter air that surrounded them. After that day, the little girl who had interrupted their walk and her grandma came up in conversation often. The incident had amused both of them a fair amount, to be quite honest.

-x-

Several months after Eren moved in with Levi, he approached Levi with a question that he figured would be denied as soon as it fell out of his mouth. They were lying side by side in bed one night; the TV filled the background with noise and filled the otherwise dark room with its glow. They were cuddling as they typically did at night; Levi was the big spoon, which was a more common occurrence than Eren being the big spoon. The black comforter of Levi’s bed was plenty warm, so both of them just slept in their boxers from night to night. Eren rolled his body over so that he could face Levi when he spoke to him. 

“Hey, Levi?”

“Yeah?”

“Does this apartment allow dogs?”

“You want a dog?”

“I was just wondering.”

“We’re allowed to have ones under a certain weight; I think it’s twenty-five pounds or something. It’d be a pain in the ass, though, running it outside all the time when we’re on the third floor.”

“Are you saying we could get one?”

“No, I’m not. We don’t need a dog.”

“Why not?”

“We just don’t.”

Eren frowned. “Oh, come on. That’s not a very good reason.”

“Do you plan on taking care of it?”

“Of course I do.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, Levi, I’m serious.” Eren rolled his eyes, making sure that Levi saw the motion.

“...Where do you plan on going to make this happen?”

“So we can get one?” Eren couldn’t keep the excitement from his voice. Levi sighed heavily before responding to Eren.

“Answer the question.”

Eren had, naturally, looked into all of the necessary arrangements that would have to take place. He’d already found a dog, actually; a black and white rat terrier who’d been dropped off at the local humane society when the family who owned him kept him in a crate more often than not. He hadn’t been treated unkindly; the family simply wasn’t at home enough to support a healthy life for a dog. He was already fully grown at three years old, and his name was Ren. Eren had fallen in love with the small dog as soon as he laid eyes on him; he took a trip to the humane society to check out the pets a couple weeks back so that he’d be prepared in the off-chance that Levi did say yes.

“The humane society here in town.”

“You already have a dog picked out, don’t you.” 

“Maybe.”

“Fine. We’ll go take a look, but I’m not making any promises.”

“Thank you!” Eren grinned and Levi gave a resigned sigh before telling Eren it was time for him to get some sleep.

The next day, the couple took a trip over to the humane society as soon as Levi got off of work. Eren had wanted to leave right away since it was only open for another forty-five minutes, so Levi was still fully garbed in his work clothes. He wore a white collared button-down along with a grey and black striped tie; his pants were black and so was his belt.  
Eren, being a simple college student, just wore a dark brown long-sleeved shirt and jeans. As soon as they stepped through the door, a cheery woman who looked to be around Levi’s age welcomed them and asked them if they were planning on looking into adopting one of their animals.

Eren answered that he was interested in Ren, and that he had already met him a couple weeks back. He asked if Ren was still there, and luckily, he was. Most people went for the puppies, so Ren wasn’t the most sought-after in the establishment. Eren and Levi were led to a kennel that housed a couple of different dogs, and the woman stepped inside and grabbed Ren. Dogs barked wildly as Ren was let out of the kennel while the rest were forced to stay put inside their own. Ren immediately ran over to Eren and Levi and sniffed their feet one at a time. 

Eren knelt down and let Ren sniff his hand before petting him gently. Ren wagged his tail and licked Eren’s hand a couple of times. Levi knelt down as well, careful not to get his pants dirty. Ren was more hesitant to approach Levi than he had been with Eren, but in the end, Ren seemed to like Levi, too. The woman asked if they were interested in filling out the paperwork to make him their own, and Eren replied with an immediate (and extremely enthusiastic) “yes”. The woman made sure to tell them that it would be best for Ren to at least go on a walk every day to help take care of pent-up energy, especially since they lived in an apartment. Other than that, he was pretty mellow after the initial excitement over meeting new humans.

Ren got to sit on Eren’s lap the entire way home; Eren spent the whole ride petting him and thanking Levi over and over for letting them get a dog. Ren was seldom away from Eren’s lap for the remainder of the night, and at one point Eren cast a glance over to Levi to find him staring at Ren with a curious gleam in his eye. Levi was leaning back against the couch with his arms crossed. Eren almost laughed when he realized what was going on.

“You’re not seriously jealous of the dog?”

“No, of course not.”

“Yeah, you are. I can tell, you know.” Eren teased.

“I’m not jealous of the goddamn dog.”

Eren leaned over and kissed Levi affectionately on the cheek as he continued petting the new addition to the household. 

“You don’t need to be jealous, you know. I wouldn’t leave you behind just because of little Ren here.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Levi huffed, stubbornly refusing to uncross his arms.

“Besides, Ren loves you!” Eren said, holding Ren up to Levi’s cheek so that he could kiss Levi on the cheek just like Eren had. Ren did just as Eren wished, licking Levi’s cheek with no shortage of enthusiasm.

Despite Levi’s reluctance to allow a dog in the apartment, he ended up loving Ren just as much as Eren did. At first, they tried to make Ren sleep in his newly-purchased kennel at night; that faltered after about a half hour of Ren howling in dismay over the sleeping arrangements. His favorite spot on the bed seemed to be right in the middle of Eren and Levi, absorbing both of their body heat. That annoyed Levi at first, but he ended up not minding much at all. 

They took him on a walk every single night once Levi got home from work, unless a situation arose in which a walk was impossible for them to accomplish. They held hands as they walked along the sidewalk; Eren was always the one to keep hold of Ren’s dark blue leash. They bought him a matching collar and leash set, so his collar was blue as well. His dog tag was silver and shaped like a bone, stating his name and their phone numbers in case he ever got lost. 

That little dog from the humane society quickly became the equivalent of a child to the couple, a welcome member in their new life together.

-x-

Levi always insisted upon taking care of Eren, and it was almost never the other way around. There happened to be one single exception to that rule, however; when Levi got sick, illness hit him hard. Whenever he got sick, he was bed-ridden for at least two days and Eren took pleasure in being the one to take care of Levi for once. He even took the day off of school whenever Levi stayed home sick from work. Eren spoon-fed a very irritated Levi all of his meals and even made the effort to heat up canned-soup to the best of his ability; for something so simple, Eren still managed to screw it up someway or other more often than not.

Levi had no intentions of letting Eren nurse him back to health; however, Eren kept his laptop away from him (he always worked from home if he had to miss work) and refused to hand it over until Levi laid the fuck back down on the bed and relaxed. Levi grudgingly did as he was told (he felt too shitty to try and wrestle it away from Eren) and allowed Eren to settle the blankets around him as comfortably as he could; Levi felt like a small child being tucked into bed. Levi claimed to be freezing, so he wore a black t-shirt and plaid pajama pants whenever he didn’t feel well. Since Eren didn’t bother with classes on said occasions, he slipped into baggy t-shirts and a pair of black and blue polka-dotted fleece pajama pants.

Eren got far too much amusement in babying Levi during those times, and once he even told Levi to open up for the choo-choo train while feeding Levi a spoonful of soup. He almost lost his life after he did that, but he determined that it was definitely worth it.

Of course, Eren’s makeshift role as a nurse only ever lasted a day or so; he was almost guaranteed to end up sick right alongside Levi because he refused to maintain any sort of distance from his sick boyfriend. He tired of just kissing Levi’s forehead in a gesture of comfort and wish of get-well-soon, favoring kissing Levi’s sickness-chapped lips with disregard to the fact that Levi was likely still contagious. 

“You deserve it.” Levi would say as Eren joined him in the bed, hacking up a lung or trying to get air through an insanely stuffy nose. Eren, however, didn’t mind; not only had he gotten to baby Levi for a bit, but he also got to spend the day cuddled beside him in bed as they drifted in and out of consciousness, minds slightly foggy from the cold medicine they consumed. Being sick may have sucked, but the situation itself sure didn’t, in Eren’s mind. 

-x-

Some of Eren’s classes were a bit tougher than he could handle at times, and they tended to really stress him out every now and then. Eren was prone to fits of anger when he was frustrated; Levi thought that his fits were rather childish in nature but he tried to never lose patience with him when he was having a rough day. Eren often threw objects or yell loudly about how fucking bullshit his classes were. When Eren started raising his voice, Levi just stood by and allowed the poor student to let out all of his pent-up frustration through shouting.

When Eren wasn’t busy shouting out his frustrations, Levi would come home and find a textbook lying discarded on the floor on the opposite side of the room from where Eren was sitting, head in his hands, not even bothering to look up and greet Levi. Eren’s most common anger-fueled nonverbal reaction to school-induced frustration was chucking his books across the room; one time he even broke a decorative vase that Levi kept in the living room. Levi hadn’t gotten angry at him for it, and instead just swept up the pieces and tossed them in the garbage. 

When he found Eren sitting with his head in his hands, he would always go over and sit down beside him on the sleek black couch. He’d place both of his hands on Eren’s shoulders and gently massage them for a while before moving on to massaging his neck. This was guaranteed to calm Eren down and help him to relax; Levi could physically feel the tension in Eren’s body go away as he rhythmically massaged his boyfriend’s neck and shoulders. Eren would apologize for any damage that he’d caused while having a fit, and Levi always wrapped his arms around him and told him that it was fine. Eren would sigh and return the embrace, resting his head on Levi’s shoulder. 

Once Ren was added into the equation, he would hop up on the couch and make himself at home on Eren or Levi’s lap. Levi would pick Ren up and lift him up to Eren’s cheek and remind him (in an overly serious tone) that Ren loved him, mirroring the way that Eren had done on the first night that they had Ren. Doing so almost always managed to make Eren crack a smile, and Levi would help him work through his tougher assignments. After that, all three of them would snuggle up together on the couch and watch some form of shitty yet entertaining movie before making their way to bed for the evening, Eren’s frustration long since dissipated.


End file.
